Mayor Tony Greer didn't sign letter endorsing gun control

Mayor Tony Greer

Posted:
02/15/2013 09:04:04 PM MST

Tony Greer

A recent letter published in the Daily Record misleadingly indicated that I support proposed actions that have the potential to disarm the citizens of Cañon City. Had the writer of the letter given me the courtesy of a telephone call to clarify my position, he would not have been able to "unknowingly" make such an inflammatory statement about my position.

I would like to clarify my position. I am not a member of the group "Mayors Against Illegal Guns." Some of their ideas make sense to me, some do not. I did not sign a letter endorsing more restrictive gun control. I might have signed such a letter if I had the time to research it and if I thought the proposed changes were constitutional and if there was benefit to the community, but I didn't.

The actual letter that I agreed to sign (but didn't actually sign, either) was rather innocuous in my opinion, and in any event, my name was listed as Citizen Greer, not Mayor Greer as the writer implied.

I want our existing gun laws to be enforced. I want to close loopholes in the laws that allow convicted criminals to easily purchase firearms and would like to see stiffer penalties for those who choose to disobey our laws and sell weapons to known convicted violent criminals.

I support the Second Amendment and the right our Americans to keep and bear arms. I also support the position of the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller, which invalidated DC's decades-old handgun ban and firearm storage law.

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The entire majority opinion of the Justice Scalia is too lengthy to reprint here, but I encourage every citizen who is passionate about firearms to read it in its entirety. It's a very important document.

Challenges to the Second Amendment have been numerous since that ruling in 2008, and the overwhelming majority of those challenges have been rejected by the courts. The courts are finding that sensible gun laws are not just constitutional, but they are critical to keeping our communities safe.

I do not oppose any law-abiding citizen's right to own any gun that they choose. I would like to see gun owners bear more responsibility when a gun they own is used to intentionally injure or kill innocent people, but I have not signed anything proposing that, either.

I agree with 74 percent of NRA members and 87 percent of non-NRA gun owners who, according to a 2012 survey conducted by GOP pollster Frank Luntz, support requiring criminal background checks of anyone purchasing a gun. In addition, 68 percent of the NRA members polled believed concealed permits should only be granted to applicants who do not have prior arrests for domestic violence.

One out of five law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty is killed with assault weapons. I do not wish to see these weapons banned, but I believe we must do more to prevent them getting into the wrong hands and being used to kill innocent people. To say that any law to that end would be unenforceable -- so why bother -- is not a good enough answer.

We can't possible cite every driver that speeds through a school zone, but we have laws that prohibit that and we enforce those laws the best we can. Countless school children are saved every year as a result.

I am not anti-gun, and I am not anti-NRA. I support the Constitution of the United States and all 27 Amendments, not just the ones I like.

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